[Foster]

I'm for anything that gets more competition time for the roboteers.

I'm a huge fan for off season events:
--they are as action filled as a regional: the same game, cool robots, alliance strategies playing to the strengths of the alliance.

-- a chance to see everyone play "lots": limited "strength of schedule" issues

-- a chance to talk to all the teams about their robot -- 30 teams 5 mins each, three hours is easy. 60 teams, I'm going to miss someone. I love the pits. "Tell me the top three things about your robot" and it's unlikely that you can get out of a pit in under 5 minutes.

Problems that people see:

--fast turn times are an issue: Hey, it's 2013, set up a queue Twitter feed. Buy a set of those "your table is waiting" LED indicators. We are technology mavens this is easy

-- too hard to manage the queue: ask an expert, on how to manage this, talk to the off season people on how they DO manage this.

-- pit times: New design constraint "need to be able to play matches with minimal pit time" Build robust robots. Build repairable robots. Have a pit strategy (think NASCAR). Plan out "well what if that breaks"

A roboteer is going to spend 250 hours on pre-season and Build Season. 200 hours of playing time seems about right.

Families want to participate: Scooting 25 minutes to watch Timmy play is easier to schedule in with other sibling activities vs driving 3 hours each way.

/stepping off my It's called competition robotics so lets compete soapbox